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36 Hours | Disneyland with Alaska Airlines
A couple of weeks ago we took a quick trip for Arden’s 7th birthday. The destination? Well, where would almost any 7 year old tell you they’d like to go for their birthday? Yep, DISNEYLAND.
We decided to surprise her, which was the most fun ever. I packed a bag with a bunch of new Disney-themed goodies (see the packing list below) and had her open it to guess our destination. As you can imagine she was pretty ecstatic! I think I love Disneyland just as much as she does so…we were all pretty happy 😉
We’ve been to Disneyland quite a few times and I thought it would be fun to share with you my favorite tips and tricks to help save you time and money (and your sanity) when planning a trip there. Because believe me, it makes a huge difference on whether your trip is one to remember or if it will make you never want to visit the “happiest place on earth” ever again.
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Simple Modern Easter Basket Ideas
After planning my little brunch the other day, I couldn’t help thinking more about my kid’s Easter baskets. Of course they’re all about the candy, but I try to strike a good balance with other fun items (not filled with sugar!). Here are some adorable Easter items that I have my eye on this year. I already have a few of them, as you might have noticed from this post, and there’s a few I’ll will be ordering very soon! What do you put in your kid’s Easter baskets? Any fun items I should check out?
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Simple Easter Brunch with World Market
My kids and I saw the new Peter Rabbit last Sunday. It was cute, feel good kid’s movie with shenanigans that reminded me of old-school cartoons. The kids loved it, so when World Market asked if I’d be interested in showcasing their new Peter Rabbit collection, I thought it would be fun to set up an easy, simple Easter-style brunch. I like to keep presentation and entertaining relatively simple. It’ a lot of work cooking, cleaning, decorating, etc! Why not keep things clean, appealing and functional? That’s my motto.
So I came up with this cute, minimalist table setup for the kid’s and a couple of their neighbor-friends.
Home Trends | Rest and Relaxation
Both the kids are off this week for winter vacation. I don’t know about you, but when the kids are off…there is definitely no vacation going on – for me at least 😉 So I find myself thinking of ways to sneak a little down time in. It doesn’t take much; a nice, soothing cup of warm tea. A hot, scented bath, even a quick minute for a couple of drops of essential oil makes a difference. I like setting up opportunities for little peaceful moments around the house. They help me keep my peace of mind in the midst of the chaos (that is kids). Here are some of my favorite picks at World Market. As you all know, World Market is one of my favorite places to shop. They always seem to have what you need – no matter how random it is. I even found some white sage there on my last trip!
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This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on a link. Thank you for supporting the affiliate posts and sponsors that make this blog possible!
We’re selling Girl Scout Cookies
If you follow me on Instagram stories you’ll have seen some of our Girl Scout adventures. This is kind of off-the-subject for us over here on the blog. BUT most parents bring cookie sale sheets into the office. Since I don’t have an office and I’d like help support Arden’s quest to sell some cookies…we have this post.
First of all, you can now order Girl Scout cookies online and have them shipped to you within a couple of days! I didn’t know this last year otherwise I would not have been without my favorite Samoas! Now that I know, I wanted to share the love (and cookies) with you all. Here is the link to my daughter’s cookie site. If you don’t have local Girl Scouts coming to your door, please feel free to use this link:
https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/arden497969
Cookie sales run for around a month – they end on February 4th, so don’t delay! Arden’s trying to meet her goal of selling 115 boxes so her and her troop can go horseback riding. They’re also helping out the local SPCA with their proceeds and their time. It’s their first year of selling cookies and as the troop leader, I’m trying to make it a good one! The amount of cookie boxes sold gets averaged out per girl, so all girls get to participate (no matter how many boxes she’s sold personally) as long as we average 115 boxes sold per girl scout!
New year, old news and our 10th Blogiversary!
We’re already over halfway through January and I’m still trying to gear up for the year to come! The blog is 10 years old this month, can you believe it?! It’s been a long and super fun road, let me tell you. Before I talk about my goals and resolutions for this year though, I’d like to go back and talk about a couple of changes that happened on the blog front first.
If you visit the blog much, you’ll have noticed the redesign that happened a few months back. I hope you all enjoy the new look and feel. Here’s the old one for reference, not too different visually, but most of the changes were on the back end. I worked with one of my favorite design team, Bloom. I’d bought ready-made templates from them in the past and loved their modern and minimalist philosophy. So when it came for a more customized design they were my go-to. Every detail has been thought over and designed for ease of use and aesthetics.
We reorganized the navigation as well – with the addition of the shop and well as our design services, the navigation needed a major overhaul. And speaking of the shop, Bloom designed that from top to bottom as well. I barely know how to write a post on WordPress let alone format the site 😉 Thankfully I found a great design team to do it for me, right?
You’ll notice that in addition to the search bar on the righthand side, we also added some additional search functionality on the daily finds and room redo pages. You can now search for finds by item and retailer. And you can also find room redos by specific rooms and styles. Pretty cool huh?
If you’re an email subscriber you also noticed a format change. Instead of showing the whole post, you now see only the featured image. The change was a mandatory one, unfortunately. The reasoning? The emails you receive are automated and affiliate linking in emails is prohibited by most advertisers. My blog is mostly supported by affiliate sales, so in order to be able to keep the blog running it’s a necessary evil. As a result, I had to stop all links from being sent out in my newsletters. The easiest way to guarantee that, was to cut text all-together. Hence the new email format.
I personally like the look of the new newsletter much, much better. But a bunch of you are unhappy with the new look. You guys miss seeing the comparisons in email format, without having to click over. I totally understand. So what I’m thinking is this…instead of the featured image or inspirational image shown in the newsletter, I’ll show the product comparison image. What do you guys think? A better compromise? That way you can see the products and click over only if you want more info. Sounds good?
And while I’m at it, I figured it was the perfect time to do a reader survey! Yay! It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of these and I’d love some feedback from you all! So go ahead, weigh in:
Thank you for your support!
36 Hours | Monterey California
A little over a month ago we celebrated Conrad and my birthday by taking a quick weekend trip to Monterey, CA. It was the perfect time of year to view the monarch butterflies at their best, not to mention the incomparable Monterey Bay Aquarium. Like all of our travel, I meticulously plan out the best spots to visit combining a great mix of splurge high end dining and thrifty hole-in-the wall mom-and-pop’s to come up with the best itinerary. And like always, my recommendations are always chosen with form and function in mind.
When the team at the newly renovated Monterey Tides invited me to view their property, it was perfect timing. Not only was the hotel designer-friendly…it’s also super reasonably priced. Oh and did I mention, it’s right smack-dab ON. THE. BEACH. As in take a few steps down and your on a gorgeous white sand beach. They even offer a beach bonfire option. Such a great idea. I think we’ll have to make another trip down there soon.
I was also lucky to be able to borrow this gorgeous Lexus RX 350 for the road trip there. Talk about the perfect spoilage for a birthday weekend you guys…Could it get any better? Driving this beauty on 17 Mile Drive pretty much made my weekend. We drove right up to the sand and maybe a touch into it…and the Lexus handled it like a champ. Don’t try that at home folks. As a matter a fact back in October the Mr and I made that mistake with a rental car in Hawaii. Needless to say it didn’t work out so well and a few kind locals helped push us out. Whoops.
Anyways, like I said, the Lexus was a pro at handling the sand. It was also so spacious that we were able to open the back hatch and create an impromptu changing station. Who expects to need a bathing suit for the beach in November, right? My bad 😉 The weather was seriously amazing. You just never know what to expect on the Northern California coastline that’s for sure.
So here’s our weekend itinerary for your viewing pleasure and it was all under $500!
